The invention relates to a operating device having an actuator, in particular for input into electronic devices, with at least two adjustment degrees of freedom. So-called joysticks are known from the prior art, and have an actuator which has at least two adjustment degrees of freedom at right angles to each other. Known joysticks have electromechanical switches and/or potentiometers, which are operated or changed by the actuator and thus change electrical values, which are then evaluated and thus control the electronic device. The disadvantage with the electromechanical switches and potentiometers is that a large number of cables or electrical lines are needed for the evaluation, and these have to be laid expensively and protected against damage.
The object of the invention is therefore to specify an operating device having an actuator with at least two adjustment degrees of freedom in which it is possible to dispense with the laying of a large number of cables or other lines in order to evaluate the position of the actuator.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by the operating device having a device for evaluating the position of the actuator optically. It is thus not necessary for any electrical information to be conducted between the actuator and evaluation unit. The medium for transporting the light beams can comprise, for example, air and/or a solid material which conducts light. By this means, the electromagnetic compatibility of the operating device is also increased.
An evaluation of this type may be implemented particularly simply if the actuator can be used to operate an apparatus for changing the light beam optically, and the operating device has a sensor for evaluating the optical changes in the light beam. This change can be implemented by this apparatus for changing a light beam optically changing the intensity and/or spectral components of the light beam. This change can take place as a result of reflection or absorption. Thus, for example, a light beam can be reflected at a variously configured disk or a variously configured section of a sphere. For instance, the disk or the section of a sphere may have different colors, for example may be coated with different colors, and the position and color of the disk or of the section of the sphere from which the light beam is reflected may depend on the position of the actuator. Thus, for example in the case of a red component of a disk or of a section of a sphere, the red component of the light beam is reflected particularly strongly, while the other spectral components are more suppressed.
Instead of reflection, absorption is also possible. Thus, for example, a light beam can be transmitted through a variously colored, translucent disk or a corresponding section of a sphere, the color through which the beam is transmitted depending on the position of the actuator. The construction becomes particularly simple if a sensor is integrated in a transmitter/receiver component which transmits a pulsed light beam, which includes the three primary colors red, green, blue, for example serially, toward a reflecting disk or a reflecting section of a sphere, and evaluates the reflected light beam in the sensor. Such a transmitter/receiver component can be mounted on a printed circuit board with little outlay, If the reflecting disk or the reflecting section of a sphere is arranged closely above the transmitter/receiver component with the sensor, no additional optical component is needed. A light conductor between the transmitter/receiver component and the reflecting component improves the functional reliability if these two components are arranged remote from each other. This makes it possible, for example, to integrate the actuator in a further operating element, for example a rotary switch or a rotary positioner, without great outlay on design, since only one light conductor is needed for information transfer, and no dedicated power supply is needed on the actuator.